Marina Bay with Suntec City and National Stadium and Kallang in the background.

1/15/2008

All for nothing

Lately we are seeing many queer things happening around us and affecting our lives. So much effort and resources, expensive brain juices were made to flow, all for nothing but principles and beliefs. People believe that something is right on principles, people believe that something will happen, and they went about insisting that things must be done to fit their principles and beliefs, even at the stake of stirring up more emotions and unhappiness.
Guess what I am talking about? In management science there is this concept called Pareto Principles. You do not waste too much effort on little returns. You spend effort in areas where you can get the most returns. Stop wasting time beating a dead horse.

7 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Redeban said: You do not waste too much effort on little returns. You spend effort in areas where you can get the most returns. Stop wasting time beating a dead horse.

How ironic. It aptly describes some of your pet peeves against the PAP vis-a-vis FTs, means testing, 6.5 million population, ministerial salaries etc. etc. Aren't they all dead horses because no matter what you say, those policies will go on. Et tu, redbean ?

let me try to answer anonymous. he as usual will not address the topic but me. it is very clear that he is not here to discuss. otherwise he will just disagree with the points or views i posted.

as for me wasting time and not dealing with impt issues with good results, let me put it this way. one should be selective in using comparison. sometimes compare with new york and tokyo, sometimes with timbucwan and timbuctoo.

that is how to win an argument.

but seriously, these issues must be repeated and repeated so that people do not forget them, just like the nkf saga. the ending is far from satisfactory. everyone choose to keep quiet about it.

if we do not keep beating at the annuities and mean testing issues, they would have been implemented long ago because it would be assumed as good since not many people object to them.

now they are having second and third thoughts about how relevant are the two impending policies. to me, both are irrelevant. just because they are somebody's pet ideas, to be seen to be introducing some great ideas to justify their income, do not mean that they are great ideas.

Yes, this trooper is damned dedicated. I hope that his handlers will give him high marks for his job performance. You can see the response time of his comments, as if he refreshes this blog every five minutes.

They just want sticky issues to go away. You are right, people need to be reminded again and again of the crap this government is dishing out. We should even intensify the reminder efforts when we are nearer to the next GE. People need to know.

Of course, he has no time to write a nick. It is because he has too many sites assigned to him to comment. He is just following instructions from the minister.

A government has no incentive to be "efficient'. Singapore govt has a reputation for efficiency, but if you compare it to "excellent" lean-mean private enterprises, all governments pale by comparison.

In private entterprise, you have to "get it right" as much as you can -- especially allocating resources, or you will be out of business very quickly.

Consider, if you will, the average stat board which is loaded with cash and resources. Their work force is over-bloated. Because many people on the stat boards payrolls simply do sweet fuck-all, the cost of maintaining this sham is enormous. To be sure, stat boards occasionally achieve their their "objectives", but look at the enormous cost. Observe the grand office premises of stat boards - luxuriously appointed with all the bells and whistles.

A lot of the nonsense which goes on in stat boards never gets reported. How many expensive projects have been started only to fizzle out and cast by the wayside. How many bullshit "studies" have been done, only to have bad data or good data which never gets used. Expensive resources are wasted. Who gives a shit? A civil servant? Not on your life! Don't believe me? Speak to the people who have quit their "cushy" jobs in stat boards, especially those in IT and management.

The stat boards answer to no one - arses are well covered. The minister-in-charge makes sure of that. The intense internal politics turns the stat boards into little feudal enclaves -- sucking up as many tax-dollars as possible to craft ambitious "projects".

Why worry? Iron rice bowl.

There is a belief by people working for the govt, that to solve problems you need money - lots of it. And if the problem can't solved, that means you didn't allocate enough money. So pour more money in. (why worry? In a market economy the people are taxed throughout the day, and even as they sleep, so there is virtually an "endless" supply)

In the real world of private enterprise, you cannot simply conjure up money out of thin air when you fail to meet an objective, and have exhausted resources you've misallocated. When more money is needed by The State, the government simply passes a Bill in pariament.

The Pareto Principle is more an observation "after the fact" than an actual "tool" in and of itself, although there are have been models, methods and operations derived from observation. Private enterprises use these ideas a lot of the time to stay profitable, viable and competitive, in areas such as quality control, IT resources and logistics management.

IMO, there is very little reason for a govt to be "lean, mean and efficient". Why bother when you can simply take money and resources from The Sheeple any time, for any reason.

How could Donald Trump be the President of the USA, the most powerful office in the world when he does not have the training, qualificatio...

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